Fig 1.
Calculation of the stenosis index in the carotid artery.
(A) Area limited by the outer wall of the vessel. (B) Lumen area. A similar method was used to evaluate coronary and cerebral arteries.
Fig 2.
Evaluation of the severity of atherosclerosis in the aorta.
(A) Absence of atherosclerosis. (B) Grade 1, non-confluent plaques without ulcerations and protrusions. (C) Grade 2, confluent areas or/and an area of ulceration with minimal protrusion. (D) Grade 3, confluent plaques with multifocal ulcerations or protrusions.
Fig 3.
Flow chart of study population.
NOK = next of kin; and PMI = post mortem interval.
Table 1.
Characteristics of the sample (n = 240).
Table 2.
Association of visceral fat with the degree and extension of atherosclerosis (n = 240).
Fig 4.
Predicted values of the stenosis index in (A) coronary, (B) carotid, and (C) cerebral arteries, according to the amount of abdominal visceral fat calculated for participants with 40 (blue line), 60 (green line), and 80 (red line) years old, using linear regression models adjusted for height, age, sex, smoking status, alcohol use, physical inactivity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, and including an interaction between age and abdominal visceral fat.
Fig 5.
Predicted values of the number of plaques in (A) coronary and (B) cerebral arteries according to the amount of abdominal visceral fat, and in the (C) coronary and (D) cerebral arteries according to the amount of pericardial fat for participants with 40 (blue line), 60 (green line), and 80 (red line) years old, using linear regression models adjusted for height, age, sex, smoking status, alcohol use, physical inactivity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, and including an interaction between age and abdominal visceral fat or pericardial fat.
Fig 6.
Predicted values of the stenosis index in (A) coronary, (B) carotid, and (C) cerebral arteries, according to the amount of pericardial fat calculated for participants with 40 (blue line), 60 (green line), and 80 (red line) years old, using linear regression models adjusted for height, age, sex, smoking status, alcohol use, physical inactivity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, and including an interaction between age and pericardial fat.
Table 3.
Association between visceral fat and atherosclerosis in different arterial sites, considering an interaction term between visceral fat and age (n = 240).